Christmas playgroup

Our playgroup had a Christmas party where we made necklaces out of cereal. Brielle wasn't too sure about wearing, she wanted it off so she could eat it.

Wrapping time!

I am running out of time to wrap and I didn't want to be stuck doing wrapping all night Christmas Eve night. So I decided to have fun with it and try it with the kids. I am SO glad I did. Brielle wanted to help wrap and Miles liked playing with the wrapping paper. The task too longer with everyones help but we created some fun memories.

I would have Brielle help me fold and put the tape on.

Once I had a pile going Brielle was more interested in playing with the wrapped presents then helping. She would stack them and unstack them just to create a new pile. This entertained her the whole time I wrapped.

I set my tripod up so we could captures all of us in our glory!

I love that Miles can sit on his own.

Miles and Brielle

It's so hard trying to capture pictures of the two kids together so I get really excited when I can capture a few pictures. Overall Brielle loves being a big sister and she is very sweet with him.

What I think she likes most are the toys that come along with a baby. Something new and fun for her to play with.

She is playing with letters and putting them on his head and in his car. Miles was happy to to have Brielle around

Miles and Eva

Brian came over to help me and brought Eva over with him. The babies enjoyed playing together. In this picture their noses look the same.

playgroup

I have been taking Brielle to a friends house for playgroup on Tuesday and Thursday. She has a little girl that is a month younger than Brielle and there is another little girl who is just days younger than Brielle. The girls get along really well and enjoy playing together while the older kids are doing joy school. There are some Thursday's we miss because I work but it has been a great social outlet for Brielle.

We begin our fun with a snack.

They have a reserved spot upstairs in the hallway where we put carpet squares down for the children to sit on. They face the wall that has an alphabet strip, calender and weather poster taped on the wall. The 2 year olds generally join the older kids for calender, weather and the alphabet. They are always welcomes to sit through the lesson or go play in the big playroom. Depending on Brielle's mood she will sit through a lot of the lesson or she will go play. The only rule is they cannot be too distracting or they are asked to stay in the playroom.

Today's playgroup was the Christmas party. We had a great time eating candy canes during our lesson.

The whole gang L to R=Andi, Ashton, Luke, Mia, Cora, and Brielle

Coloring is fun to do see Mom!

Of course the little girls love and adore Miles. I have to watch them so they don't poke his eyes out or smother them with just a little too much love.

Brielle likes to listen and watch what the older kids are doing in joy school but she likes to play too. Often times she will bring a few toys out of the playroom so she can do both.

The only bad part about the whole thing is it's right during Miles nap time. Luckily he will fall asleep while we are there.

The necklace made out of cereal.

FHE caroling

I had so much fun caroling as a family I wanted to do it again. This time we invited a few families from our ward to join us. I coordinated the ward families we were going to sing to and had sheet music ready for everyone. Then we ended up showing up late!! Dang it. But our group forgave us and off we went to sing.

The weather was PERFECT! Needless to say we had a wonderful time and I think we provided a little Christmas joy to the families we sang to. I think what I like about it the most is the smiles people have on their faces as we are singing to them.

Our group: Jolley family, McCombs family, Ballingham family and ourselves.

We ended our family home evening caroling activity at the Ballinghams with snacks and hot chocolate.

Miles turns 5 months

After nearly 19 months off I had to go back to work. It wasn't looking forward to it but it seemed to be easier with Miles than it was with Brielle. I think since he is a little older I didn't feel such guilt. He is turning into such a Momma's boy.

He gets super excited just hearing my voice. This is helpful when I call him while I am at work because he gets so excited and starts looking for me and coos into the phone. It makes it SO much easier to go back to work when I know I can keep in touch with him a little. He also gives me the BEST response when I come home. He gets all gitty and smiles, and kicks. He can't wait to get into my arms. He loves on me and nestles into my chest and arms. He is also anxious for me to feed him. He makes me feel warm and fuzzy when I walked into the door.

He is able to hold up his head a little better. Each month there is improvement.

We went to the Sacramento zoo for the first time with him. He did a great job. At one point he become a little fussy and I put a book in front of him and he loved it. He cooed and scanned the page, soaking it all in. I think I am going to have another book lover on my hands.

He sure is growing which makes me happy.

He is starting to grab and play with toys better.

He loves to lay on the floor and play with his toys, especially if they are hanging.

He likes to look at himself in the mirror. One day he sat there for 30 minutes watching himself and laughing.

I am still trying to get him to take the pacifier. Only on RARE occasions will he take it but he does take it. Maybe there is still hope but I am SLOWLY coming to the conclusion that he is not going to take one.

What Miles does prefer is his HAND! I have always heard breaking a pacifier is easy then a thumb sucker. I am SO afraid he is going to suck his thumb, or fingers. Only time will tell.

This month he had his first ride on the sled. It snowed and Matt was able to play with us for the afternoon. It was so much fun having him around and watching him play Miles.

Miles is just like his sister in regard to napping. He doesn't! I put him in his crib and he only sleeps max 30 min. He prefers to be held. However a saving grace is the swing. I'm screwed when he out grows it. This month we also put him in his own room. For some reason it was SO hard to transition him. I cried and was not happy the first night. I just wanted to go and pick him up, snuggle and put him back in the co-sleeper. In fact, I kept the co-sleeper up for about a week or so because I was so tempted to put him back with us.

He still has the most adorable smile. He just melts my soul when he looks at you and smiles. He is willing to share it with anyone.

He is starting to sit up a little longer on his own. He topples over shortly after sitting him up. But he is sitting without support.

He is also kicking up his legs and rolling from side to side

At the end of the month it was time to start celebrating Christmas. I was so excited to see how he was going to response to Santa and opening presents. He was a trooper and sat and watched us set up for Christmas.

He has been interlocking his fingers, I just so happen to catch it with my camera

He likes to watch what is going on. He especially likes watching Brielle. Depending on her mood she will get down and play with him. Don't let her fool you, she loves and adores Miles.

Merlin says Miles looks a lot like he did when he was a baby. I would love to get some pictures.

Whenever Grandma Hoffman is around she like to hold and love on him for a bit. He doesn't seem to complain too much either.

Miles did an amazing job with Santa....no anxiety. He would sit on his lap all day if they would let him pull on his beard. He sees hair and he is pulling on it. He sat on Santa's lap twice, each one he had his hand and fingers wrapped up in his beard.